Tourism marketing and distribution through social media: Assessing business economic performance

The research presented in this manuscript investigates consumers’ experiences with technology-related service encounters, through examining the validity of Mick and Fournier’s paradoxes of technology adoption to the social media as a marketing channel in tourism and its impact on business economic performance. Qualitative research was performed to examine consumers’ attitudes when using social media as marketing and purchasing channels and the results were compared to those of Mick and Fournier. Findings appear comparable, indicating that when consumers adopt online distribution channels, they also develop positive and negative attitudes. Findings of this survey also indicate that the type of some of the paradoxes experienced by consumers may depend on the particular industry and the medium being investigated. Last, conclusions are presented in relation to the economic performance of the tourism businesses using social media as marketing and distribution channels.